1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to framing construction employed on conventionally wood-framed buildings. More particularly, it relates to a light enabled plumb indicator for final positioning of walls and vertical structures which concurrently provides a levering function to brace and maintain the framed component structure vertically while allowing for a visual determination of an exact vertical disposition of the framed component for a subsequent final installation.
2. Prior Art
In the construction industry, wood framing of walls for building is a conventionally widely employed mode of construction. Essentially, framed walls are formed remotely or on-site, of wood framing which is later covered with a finished surface such as SHEETROCK or stucco. Such construction provides an exceptionally strong building skeleton to the building having exterior and interior wall surfaces covering the underlying wall frames.
In such contraction, whether the framed wall components are formed on-site, or off-site and shipped for subsequent employment in the building, the heavy wood framing must be tilted vertical and installed on an underlying supporting surface. In the process, the framed wood components are conventionally lifted from a stored horizontal position, to a vertical upright position, by a group of construction workers. Thereafter, prior to being nailed or screwed into place on the support surface, the wall frame component must be situated substantially perpendicular with the underlying support surface. It should be noted that the term wall frame as used herein is for ease of description and should not be limiting. The term should be understood to include any wall or frame or pole or post other structure, that must be plumbed during final installation and is not limited to wall frames alone.
This elevation and plumbing stage of the framed wall components is highly labor intensive. This is because a group of workers is required to lift the wall and to subsequently stand around and wait, while another worker employs a straight edge with a bubble level, to position the wood frame in position perpendicular to the ground. Thereafter, the frame is nailed or screwed to hold the positioning and the group of workers will move to the next framed wall or component.
As can be surmised, such a system requiring a group of workers to aid one worker in lifting and aligning a wood framed wall or support structure, is excessively labor intensive. This is due to the nature of the weight of the framed wall or support structure and the conventional means to plumb such wood framed structures. A worker determining a plumb or vertical line conventionally employs alignment devices such as bubble levels or plumb-bobs, which is a weight, usually with a pointed tip on the bottom, that is suspended from a string and used as a vertical reference line.
As noted, during framed wall construction and installation, while one or a group of workers erect the wall frame, the another worker employs the alignment device on the frame dictating to the other when exact vertical has been reached. The employment of such antiquated construction practices dictated by the state of the art of plumb devices and the conventional heavy weight of framed walls or support structures, dictates the excessive labor conventionally required and the resulting excessive construction costs incurred by builders.
In some applications, linear aligned light, such as that from lasers, can be projected from the frame or support structure, to determine plumb, level, as well as squaring for as-built structures as well as during wall construction. Such employment of laser light is seen in prior art U.S. Pat. No. 6,742,269 to Kim et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,763,595 to Hersey, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,174,647 to Krantz et al.
However, these as well as other alignment devices in prior art, are simply conventionally enabled bubble devices which still require two or more workers for the dual tasks of both erecting the structure, and the employment of the chosen alignment device to ascertain if the structure erected is plumb. With the high number of walls and support structures employed on construction sites, using excess workers for each wall structure is time consuming and extremely costly.
As such, there is a continuing and unmet need for a plumb and squaring device which is employable by a single worker, to both elevate a wall frame from a horizontal stored position to its upright as-used position. Such a device should provide the mechanical advantage for a worker to raise a heavy wall from a horizontal to vertical position. Further, such a device should also allow the same single worker to plumb the wall during raising properly by the provision of a visually observable means for confirming a plumb elevation of the frame, which is observable standing on the support surface, to allow the single worker to both elevate the framed wall while concurrently validating a plumb or vertical line has been achieved.
Additionally, such a device should be lightweight and easy to use and have a cost low enough to allow multiple devices to be employed on a work site so that they may be employed as a means to hold the elevated framed walls in the plumb as-used position, and allow for subsequent plumb confirmations until fasteners are engaged to hold it in such position.